LONDON, Oct 7 — The United Kingdom is backing more than £2 million ($2.7 million) in investment across 10 clean-energy projects in eight African countries, seeking to reduce dependence on diesel generators in hospitals, telecommunications, agriculture and small businesses.
The projects, announced by the Zero Emission Generators initiative, or ZE-Gen, will operate in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Tanzania, Madagascar, Nigeria, Mozambique and Lesotho.
The programme is backed by the UK government’s Ayrton Fund through the Transforming Energy Access platform and will help companies move renewable-energy technologies from pilot projects towards larger-scale deployment.
In Kenya, projects will introduce battery and solar systems for hospitals, schools and businesses that currently face unreliable grid electricity.
University of Oxford spin-out SHIELD will work with a major Kenyan hospital to replace diesel generation with solar and battery systems while testing financing models aimed at reducing costs and attracting further investment.
In Uganda, British battery company AceOn will deploy battery-first systems, including sodium-ion technology, for telecommunications infrastructure, healthcare facilities and humanitarian operations.
Nigeria will receive projects focused on agriculture and food markets. Farm Warehouse plans to deploy 100 solar-powered cold-storage systems for fish, meat and dairy vendors, while KAMIM Technologies will establish four solar-powered agricultural hubs combining irrigation, cold storage, ice production and grain processing.
Mozambique will host renewable-powered fishing hubs using solar energy, battery storage and cold-chain technology, while projects in Rwanda will use second-life electric vehicle batteries for energy storage.
Other initiatives will support rural businesses in Uganda and Tanzania, community electrification in Madagascar and mini-grid battery storage in Lesotho.
“These ZE-Gen supported projects show how clean energy can power the services and businesses people rely on every day – from hospitals and telecommunications networks to food systems and local enterprises,” ZE-Gen Programme Director Lily Beadle said.
“The next challenge is scaling the most successful approaches,” she added.
ZE-Gen said the projects were designed to demonstrate how renewable-energy systems could provide more reliable and affordable electricity while reducing reliance on fossil-fuel generators in areas with weak or unreliable power grids.
ZE-Gen, launched at the COP27 climate summit, is led by the Carbon Trust and Innovate UK and aims to mobilise £100 million to accelerate the replacement of fossil-fuel generators with renewable-energy alternatives.
(Reporting by Mohamed Duale; HornDiplomat News Desk)
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